Magnetic disc unit with gap between magnetic disc and shroud

ABSTRACT

A magnetic disc unit includes a rotating disc type magnetic disc, a head for recording and reproducing data to and from the magnetic disc, and a head support mechanism for supporting the head. The magnetic disc unit includes a shroud surrounding an outer periphery of the magnetic disc other than at least at an inserting part of a carriage arm which is linked to the magnetic head support mechanism. A gap between an end face of the outer periphery of the magnetic disc and the shroud is set in a range not less than 0.1 mm but not greater than 0.4 mm.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/387,903, filedMar. 24, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/680,235, filed Oct. 8, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,072,141, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/247,550, filed Feb. 10,1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,050, the subject matter of which isincorporated by reference herein and is copending with U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/022,260, filed Dec. 20, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,139,which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/247,550,filed Feb. 10, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,050.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a rotary recording apparatus forreading and writing data from and to a rotating disc by means of amagnetic head, an optical head or the like, and in particular to amagnetic disc unit which can reduce fluid oscillation induced on arotating disc so as to carry out positioning with a high degree ofaccuracy.

In a magnetic disc unit, these days, it is required to increase thecapacity of memory by increasing the processing speed, and accordingly,the rotational speed of a disc has been gradually increased. However, anincrease in the rotational speed, increases disc oscillation due to afluid force caused by rotation so as to raise a new problem that thedegree of positioning accuracy is lowered.

Conventionally, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. S59-72680,a shroud is provided around the outer periphery of a disc with apredetermined gap between the disc and the shroud in order to reducebounce (which well be hereinbelow referred to as “flutter”) of the disc.In this document there is described that the distance between the innerwall of the shroud and the outer periphery of the disc is changed from12 mm to 10 mm, and as a result, the amplitude of oscillation isdecreased from about 20 fÊ to 10 fÊ. Further, if the distance isdecreased to 6 mm, the amplitude of oscillation is decreased to 15 fÊ,and if the distance is set to be less than 3 mm, the amplitude ofoscillation becomes 8 fÊ which is relatively small. That is, if theouter periphery of the magnetic disc and the inner wall of the shroud isset to a value below 3 mm, the oscillation can be minimized.

Further, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. H9-204767, there is disclosesa gap between a shroud and a magnetic disc which set to be 0.1 mm inorder to prevent liquid lubricant with which the outer surface of themagnetic disc is coated, from scattering.

It is noted that, in the above-mentioned Japanese Laid-Open Patent No.S59-72680, there is disclosed a gap between the shroud and the discwhich is 2 mm at maximum.

Further, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. H9-204767, there is discloseda gap between the shroud and the disc which is 0.1 mm at maximum.

By the way, in a magnetic disc unit, a higher data transfer velocity(data rate) is desired in order to obtain a larger storage capacity.Thus, the rotational speed of a disc has been gradually increased up tonow, and it is anticipated that the rotational speed will be furtherincreased in future. An increase in rotational speed of a disc increasesflutter which is oscillation of a disc, and accordingly, would mainlycontribute to increase errors in positioning of a magnetic head. Thus,it has been required to reduce the oscillation.

Thus, there has mainly been two ways for reducing flutter of a disc asfollows: First, a fluid force serving as an excitation source isreduced. Precisely, the pressure distribution is made to be uniform overthe surface of a disc. Second, the stiffness of a disc is increased inorder to decrease oscillation of a disc. Although the thickness of adisc may be increased to increase the stiffness of the disc, an increasein the thickness thereof causes a disc unit to have a larger size, andaccordingly, it is unpreferable.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a rotary recordingapparatus which can, on one hand, prevent flutter causing errors inpositioning from increasing even though the rotational speed becomeshigher, and which can, on the other hand, enhance the degree ofpositional accuracy for coping with a large storage capacity.

That is, according to the present invention, there is provided a largecapacity magnetic disc unit which can reduce a fluid force serving as anexcitation source so as to prevent occurrence of flutter in order torestrain occurrence of noise or the like, and which can read and writedata from and onto a disc with a high degree of accuracy. Specifically,a shroud (outer wall) is provided around the entire periphery of arotating disc, except an insertion part thereof for a carriage arm, anda gap between the shroud and the outer periphery of the disc is set tobe not less than 0.1 mm but not greater than 0.6 mm.

An air stream induced during rotation of a disc causes a pressuredifferential between the upper and lower surfaces of the disc, whichcauses excitation of the disc, resulting in flutter of the disc. If thegap between the shroud and the disc is set to be narrower than apredetermined value, air on the upper and lower surfaces of the disc isisolated so as to reduce the pressure differential.

With this arrangement, it is possible to reduce the amplitude offlutter, and accordingly, the degree of accuracy for positioning amagnetic head even in a high speed recording apparatus can be enhanced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a perspective view illustrating a disc unit to which thepresent invention is applied;

FIG. 1B is a top view illustrating the disc unit shown in FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating a disc part, for defining a gapbetween a shroud and a disc;

FIG. 3 is a view showing a relationship between an amplitude of flutterand a gap between the shroud and the disc;

FIGS. 4A to 4D are contour maps of air pressure differential on thefront and rear surfaces of a disc, which is obtained through analysis;and

FIG. 5 is a relationship between an amplitude of flutter and a gapbetween a shroud and a disc.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Explanation will be made of a first embodiment of the present inventionwith reference to FIGS. 1A to 4D. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, discs 1are stacked on a spindle 2, and a magnetic head 3 for recording andreproducing data is carried on a slider 4 which is supported by amagnetic head support mechanism 5 connected to a guide arm 6. A carriage9 is composed of the guide arm 6, a pivot bearing 7 and a voice coilmotor (which will be hereinbelow referred to as “VMC”) 8, and the guidearm 6 is rotated by the VNC 8 around the pivot bearing 7. Further, theseelements are set on a casting base 10 which is surrounded by a wall(shroud 20). A gap between the outer peripheries of the discs 1 and theinner wall of the shroud 20 is maintained at a predetermined distance(which will be referred to as “disc-shroud gap”). The shroud 20 and thebase 10 are made of the same casting material, being integrallyincorporated with each other.

The shroud 20 is formed therein with an opening 30 for introducing theguide arm 6 therethrough onto a surface of a disc 1. The opening angleof the opening 30 is selected so as to be minimized while to allow thearm to be simply assembled and to prevent the arm from making contactwith the shroud even through the head is shifted from the innerperiphery to the outer periphery of the disc. In this embodiment, theopening angle is set to about 45 deg.

A wall is formed along the entire periphery of the base 10 of the unit.Further, this wall serves as a part of the shroud 20 surrounding theouter peripheries of the discs 1. However, the shroud 20 is arranged tobranch off from the wall in the vicinity of the opening 30 so as tosurround the discs 1.

Meanwhile, the wall serves as a surrounding wall 40 for surrounding thecarriage 9 so as to hermetically enclose the unit. Repeatedly, the wallsurrounding the discs 1 will be hereinbelow defined and referred to asthe shroud 20. According to the present invention, the gap between theshroud 20 and the end faces of the discs 1 is regulated within apredetermined range so as to reduce the amplitude of flutter which wouldoccur during rotation of the disc at a high speed, in order to restrainoccurrence of noise. Detailed explanation will be hereinbelow made ofthis measure.

Referring to FIG. 2 which is a sectional view along line A-A in FIG. 1B,the definition to the disc-shroud gap will be clarified.

As shown in FIG. 2, the spindle motor 2 is mounted on the base 10,having a shaft on which the discs 1 are stacked. The base 10 isincorporated with the shroud 20, being integrally molded therewith. Theinner wall 21 of the shroud 20 is arranged along the entire periphery ofthe discs with a predetermined gap being held from the edge faces 11 ofthe discs 1 (this gap will be hereinbelow referred to as “disc-shroudgap”), except that the opening (which is not shown in FIG. 2) forintroducing the arm 6 is formed in a part where the arm 6 of thecarriage 9 is introduced onto a surface of a disc 1. The inner wall ofthe shroud is substantially circular, having a center which issubstantially aligned with the rotating center of the discs 1 or thespindle motor 2. Accordingly, the above-mentioned disc-shroud gap issubstantially uniform around the entire peripheries of the discs 1,except that the opening, that is, the insertion part for the arm 6,where no shroud 20 is formed.

Referring to FIG. 3, there are shown results of measurements forrelationship between the disc-shroud gap and the amplitude of flutter.Specifically, with the use of magnetic discs having an outer diameter of3.5 inches, the discs were rotated at 7,200 rpm while amplitudes offlutter were measured by a displacement gage utilizing LDV (laserDoppler Velocity) while the disc-shroud gap is changed from 0.2 mm, to0.4 mm, 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm, 1.2 mm, 2.5 mm, 4 mm and to 6 mm. The results ofthe measurements, which are averaged and normalized, that is, arenon-dimensional values, are shown in FIG. 3.

In the figure, circular, triangular and square spots denote variousflutters having different frequencies. As clearly understood from theseresults of measurements, the amplitude of flutter is decreased as thedisc-shroud gap is decreased to a value less than 0.6 mm. Further, theamplitude of flutter is not appreciably decreased in a range from 0.6 mmto 6 mm. Meanwhile, in the case of less than 0.6 mm, if the disc-shroudgap is decreased to 0.4 mm and to 0.2 mm, the amplitude of flutter canbe reduced, remarkably. Specifically, if the shroud gap is 0.2 mm, theamplitude of flutter can be decreased to a value which is about 1/10 ofthe amplitude of flutter obtained with a disc-shroud gap of 0.6 mm.

In this embodiment, the disc-shroud gap is set to 0.4 mm. With thisarrangement, the amplitude of flutter can be reduced to about a half ofthat obtained at a disc-shroud gap of about 1 mm. Of course, adisc-shroud gap of about 0.5 mm is also effective. It is desirable thatthe disc-shroud gap is narrower since the amplitude of flutter canbecome smaller. However, in view of the assembly of a disc unit, thenarrower the disc-shroud gap, the more the difficulty in assembling themagnetic disc unit.

Further, it would be practically impossible to set the disc-shroud gapto a value less than 0.1 mm, in view of a diametrical tolerance (±0.05mm) of discs which are available at present and the erection tolerancebetween T discs and spindles. In view of the above-mentioned facts, ithas been understood that the flutter can be reduced by setting thedisc-shroud gap in a range which is not less than 0.1 mm but not greaterthan 0.6 mm.

FIGS. 4A to 4D show contour lines of air pressure differentials betweenthe outer and rear surfaces of a rotating disc, which were obtained fromresults of flow analysis in such a condition that the disc-shroud gap isnarrowed. FIGS. 4A to 4D show those with a disc-shroud gap of 2 mm, 1mm, 0.5 mm and 0.2 mm, respectively.

As understood from these figures, contour lines have crest peaks on theouter peripheral side of the disc in the case of a disc-shroud gap of 2mm or 1 mm. These pressure differentials become excitation forcesapplied to the disc, causing the disc to flutter. Meanwhile, in the caseof a small disc-shroud gap of 0.5 mm or 0.2 mm, no contour lines havingcrest peaks of pressure differentials causing occurrence of flutter, arefound. In other words, no pressure differentials are produced, andaccordingly, the amplitude of flutter becomes smaller. These resultswell follow the results of experiments shown in FIG. 3, qualitativelyand quantitatively. Thus, it has been also understood from the resultsof this analysis that a disc-shroud gap of less than 0.5 mm caneffectively restrain occurrence of flutter.

Reference Example

A high speed magnetic disc unit in which the outer diameter of discs is2.5 inches, and the rotational speed is 12,600 rpm, and the opening 30has an opening angle of 140 deg. was prepared, and tested for flutter inthe following measuring conditions:

-   -   Rotational speed: 12,600 rpm    -   Disc thickness: 0.8 mm    -   Measuring position: topmost and outermost of disc    -   Measuring Method: flutter amplitudes were measured at five low        frequencied by LVD    -   Averaged values each obtained from the five measured amplitudes        were comparatively considered (Refer to FIG. 5)

The results of these measurements show that a smaller disc-shroud gap iseffective for reducing flutter, similar to the effects mentioned before.In this example, if the disc-shroud gap becomes less than 0.4 mm, theflutter reducing effects is appreciable. Thus, the disc-shroud gap isset to 0.4 mm. Accordingly, the amplitude of flutter can be reduced byabout 10%. Further, if the disc-shroud gap is set to 0.2 mm, the fluttercan be reduced by about 50%.

In the same example, even if the opening angle of the opening 30 is setto 45 deg., 65 deg. and to 140 deg. respectively, no distinctivedifference was appreciated in the effects of reducing the amplitude offlutter by decreasing the disc-shroud gap. Namely, it has beenexperimentally confirmed that the flutter can be reduced by decreasingthe disc-flutter gap if the opening angle was changed from 45 deg. to140 deg. Thus, the opening angle of the opening 30 is set to about 140deg. in view of simplicity of the assembly of the apparatus. The lowerlimit values of the disc-shroud gap must be set to a value greater than0.1 mm in view of the manufacturing tolerance of outer diameterdimensions of discs and the erection tolerance of the disc unit.

Although difference between the disc-shroud gaps of 0.6 mm and 0.4 mmfor reducing flutter seems to be appreciable, if these gaps arenormalized by the diameters of the discs, about 1/150 for a 2.5 inchdisc and about 1/130 for a 3.5 inch disc, which are nearly equal to eachother, can be obtained. In this example, the flutter can be also reducedwhile a high speed magnetic disc unit having a large storage capacitycan be obtained. Further, with the provision of a pocket adapted toaccommodate an air filter for purifying air flowing into the unit, in apart of the shroud, or the provision of a finger insertion pocket forremoval of a disc the disc-shroud gap becomes large in that part incomparison with the other part of the shroud. Even in this case, it hasbeen confirmed that effects similar to those mentioned above can be alsoobtained.

Although, in the first embodiment, it has been explained that the shroud20 is made of the same casting material as that of the base 10, and isintegrally incorporated with the base 10, the shroud 20 may be formed,independent from the base 10, in order to enhance the processingaccuracy and the processing performance thereof, and thereafter, it maybe assembled to the base 10. Alternatively, the shroud may be machined.Further, even through the disc-shroud gap is different between theuppermost and lowermost ones of the stacked discs due to a die drawinggradient of the base mold dies, it had been confirmed that the sametechnical effects and advantages as that of the first embodiment may beobtained if the minimum disc-shroud gap is set to a value less than 0.6mm or 0.4 mm.

With the provision of such an arrangement according to the presentinvention, a cylindrical shroud is provided around magnetic discsstacked on the shaft of a spindle motor, and a gap between the shroudand the outer end faces of the discs is set in a predetermined range(not less than 0.1 but not greater than 0.6 mm), a high speed and largestorage capacity magnetic disc unit can be provided.

1. A magnetic disc unit comprising a rotating disc type magnetic disc, ahead for recording and reproducing data to and from the magnetic disc,and a head support mechanism for supporting the head, the magnetic discunit including a shroud surrounding an outer periphery of the magneticdisc other than at least at an inserting part of a carriage arm which islinked to the magnetic head support mechanism, wherein a gap between anend face of the outer periphery of the magnetic disc and the shroud isset in a range not less than 0.1 mm but not greater than 0.4 mm.
 2. Amagnetic disc unit as set forth in claim 1, wherein the magnetic disc isany one of a plurality of magnetic discs stacked on a shaft of a spindlemotor, and the shroud is integrally incorporated with a base of anapparatus, having a machined surface opposing end faces of the magneticdiscs.
 3. A magnetic disc unit as set forth in claim 1, wherein aplurality of magnetic discs are stacked on a shaft of a spindle, themagnetic discs having an outer diameter of 3.5 inches, and the magneticdisc unit having a rated rotational speed of higher than 7,600 rpm.
 4. Amagnetic disc unit as set forth in claim 1, wherein the shroud has anopening portion for inserting at least the carriage arm which has anopening angle of 45°-140°.